Delhi, the Trip That Was…

Delhi is a beautiful place. I love the wide roads, the manicured lawns and well maintained historical places. There’s something about Delhi that makes me want to visit it again.

Much to my dismay, I couldn’t find the time to post while in Delhi. There were plenty of things to do on the work front and very little time to explore Delhi. However, thanks to a friend, I did do a bit of sightseeing on the last two days of my trip. Saw a few historic buildings and even did “mall-hopping” in Gurgaon, which by the way, wasn’t all that great compared to what I’ve heard about them.

Cannaught Place, referred to CP by Delhiites appears to be the business hub of Delhi. Its like this huge circle with radial roads spreading out in all directions. Its pretty confusing to drive through the area as most of them look identical.

Visiting the Taj Mahal was out of the question as one would need a whole day to travel to Agra and back, which I did not have. So, I’ve left that for the future.

On the last day of my trip, barely 4 hours before I left, a friend and I went for a drive to the India Gate. India Gate is a prominent fixture in central Delhi and cannot be missed. The excusite monument has an aura thats very hard to put in words. Inscribed on top is the following

To the dead of the Indian armies who fell honoured in France and Flanders Mesopotamia and Persia East Africa Gallipoli and elsewhere in the near and the far-east and in sacred memory also of those whose names are recorded and who fell in India or the north-west frontier and during the Third Afgan War.

We spent some time there looking at the splendid form and all the tourists who were spread around posing for pictures. It was a nice evening. There was a lake nearby where you could go boating for almost nothing. While walking around the place I noticed the Rashtrapati Bhavan (Presidential Palace) right ahead. We decided to go there and see it up close.

Where I almost met the President

The Rashtrapati Bhavan has a breathtaking architecture. While we were outside the palace, I got an opportunity to speak to one of the guards there. During the course of our conversation, I candidly asked him what it would take to meet the President. He laughed at first, but when he realised that I was serious, he asked me try another gate which was located at the far end of the palace. We went there and told the guards there our intent. To my luck, one of the guards happened to be from South India, so speaking to him in native language helped enormously. We were let in and asked to contact the Central Registry Office.

Now, normally one would need to take an appointment weeks in advance to meet the President and it should have to do with some issue that needs to be discussed. But we did not have any. We just wanted to meet our President and spend few minutes with him and we were very honest with that. I met a nice person at the Central Registry Office and told him my case. He turned me down saying that it was not possible to meet the President like that which obviously was right. But when I insisted that I’ve come this far, he asked me to write a letter and had it sent immediately to the Personal Secretary to the President (PSP). We were asked to wait.

We were excited with our prospects and spent few minutes looking around while waiting at the office. The palace was massive with lush green grass laid out as a carpet and a few peacocks straying around. After about 5 minutes I got a call from the PSP, saying that it was not possible to meet the President at such short notice more so as he had prior commitments with the visiting Bangladeshi prime minister. They asked us to come back the following morning. I knew at this point it would be futile pushing it any further as I was already getting late for my flight back home. We thanked and left.

Looking back now, I wish I had that one extra day so that I could have met the President. Hopefully some day, I will.